VM types on Lima

QEMU

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

“qemu” option makes use of QEMU to run guest operating system.

“qemu” is the default driver for Linux hosts.

Recommended QEMU version:

v8.2.1 or later (macOS)
v6.2.0 or later (Linux)

On a Windows host, “qemu” needs ssh, scp, and ssh-keygen; the OpenSSH client that Windows installs by default provides all three. Mounts must use reverse-sshfs, because QEMU for Windows has no 9p support. Pinning sftpDriver: openssh-sftp-server also requires sftp-server.exe, which comes from the optional OpenSSH Server feature.

VZ

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

⚡ Requirement	Lima >= 0.14, macOS >= 13.0

“vz” option makes use of native virtualization support provided by macOS Virtualization.Framework.

“vz” has been the default driver for macOS hosts since Lima v1.0.

An example configuration (no need to be specified manually):

limactl start --vm-type=vz

vmType: "vz"

base:
- template:_images/ubuntu
- template:_default/mounts

WSL2

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Warning “wsl2” mode is experimental

⚡ Requirement	Lima >= 0.18 + (Windows >= 10 Build 19041 OR Windows 11)

“wsl2” option makes use of native virtualization support provided by Windows’ wsl.exe (more info).

An example configuration:

limactl start --vm-type=wsl2 --mount-type=wsl2 --containerd=system

# Example to run Fedora using vmType: wsl2
vmType: wsl2
images:
# Source: https://github.com/runfinch/finch-core/blob/main/rootfs/Dockerfile
- location: "https://deps.runfinch.com/common/x86-64/finch-rootfs-production-amd64-1771357941.tar.gz"
 arch: "x86_64"
 digest: "sha256:423d1a0f1cabeaea6801995c90ed896dccc091180068626430f19fd87853fdf3"
mountType: wsl2
containerd:
 system: true
 user: false

Krunkit

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Warning “krunkit” is experimental

⚡ Requirement	Lima >= 2.0, macOS >= 14 (Sonoma+), Apple Silicon (arm64)

Krunkit runs super‑light VMs on macOS/ARM64 with a focus on GPU access. It builds on libkrun, a library that embeds a VMM so apps can launch processes in a hardware‑isolated VM (HVF on macOS, KVM on Linux). The standout feature is GPU support in the guest via Mesa’s Venus Vulkan driver (venus), enabling Vulkan workloads inside the VM. See the project: containers/krunkit.

HCS

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Warning “hcs” mode is experimental

⚡ Requirement	Lima >= 2.3 + (Windows >= Windows 11)

“hcs” option makes use of native virtualization support provided by Windows’ Host Compute System (HCS) API (more info).

An example configuration:

limactl start --vm-type=hcs --plain --dns 8.8.8.8

# Example to run Ubuntu using vmType: hcs
vmType: hcs
images:
- location: "https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/resolute/release-20260720/ubuntu-26.04-server-cloudimg-amd64.img"
 arch: "x86_64"
 digest: "sha256:117816726abbdefc5ef3e38902e81a76f1c76c3610e709999d0885f9d5d9b477"
plain: true
dns:
- 8.8.8.8